The Bass legacy continues Sunday when people will gather at his estate to watch a massive tractor-trailer haul the red barn, built in the 1920s, over the equivalent of two city blocks to a new home. The barn, by the way, measures 92-by-36 feet, is 40 feet tall and, with metal supports needed to help with the move, weighs 140,000 pounds.

All in all, the production would make John Bass proud.

Yet as interesting as the spectacle will surely be, the real story is how Tangent came to own the barn, who rescued it and why it's moving.

So slow down and pull up a chair. Get a cup and slip into a small town's history.

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Tangent, known as the grass seed capital of the world, is so small that when visitors need directions to City Hall, they're told to "take a right" at the Dixie Creek Saloon.

View full sizeCourtesy of Beth TimmonsThis is Dale Clark, a friend of farmer John Bass, holding Kitty Kat.

Don't go looking for anything fancy. City Hall is headquartered in the Bass house. The City Council meets there on a Monday night once a month. The council chambers are in the living room.

The town has no tax base and limited resources, getting a bit of money from state cigarette and liquor taxes and franchise fees from cable, electric, gas and garbage companies. It has just two employees -- town coordinator Georgia Edwards and the budget and finance director, Bev Manfredo, who also answers the City Hall telephone.

The ghost of John Bass and Kitty Kat are everywhere. Photos of Bass are scattered through the house. A framed photo of Kitty Kat has a place of honor, on a table in the council chambers.

"You can't spend anytime in Tangent and not know about John Bass and his cat," Edwards said. "They're part of our history."

No one, however, knows if Kitty Kat, a gray and white mix, was a male or female.

"There were never any babies if that helps," Edwards said.

Reid, the attorney who drew up the will, said he never bothered to ask Bass, a rye grass and wheat farmer and tavern owner, the cat's gender.

"He was kind of a rough guy," Reid said. "He was a fast talker. He knew my dad, and he came to see me to represent him on some farm problems. One day he asked me to draw up this will. First time I've ever been asked to find a way to leave everything to a cat. Here was an old guy who wanted his cat to have first crack at the estate."

Bass died of "old age," Reid said, but neither he nor City Hall officials can remember his age.

After the funeral, it came time to read the will.

"I was the mayor back then," said Jim Wagner, now a Tangent councilman. "The attorney called me and told me about the will. It came out of the blue."

The will said that a Bass friend, a man who lived on a mobile home on the property, could stay there with Kitty Kat and feed him. The $70,000 that Bass left was to pay for cat food and maintenance to the house and barn.

View full sizeCity of TangentThis is a photo of John Bass from a book called "History of Tangent," by David and Debra Brush, and Eileen Samard.

"The cat had been an outdoor cat," Edwards said. "After Mr. Bass died people were afraid someone might kidnap Kitty Kat for ransom. So we had to keep the cat indoors."

Kitty Kat, Edwards said, wasn't great at using a litter box, perhaps making a statement about the nature of politics.

"It did try and run outside," Edwards said. "A few council meetings were stopped to go rescue the cat."

"Naturally, we had a funeral," Reid said. "I was there. We had 20 people and had some music playing on a recorder."

The cat was buried in front of the Bass home under a small stone marker that reads: "Kitty Kat, a true friend."

***

The barn became an albatross for Tangent, Edwards said. The $70,000 maintenance fund was long gone, and the structure deteriorated and the roof had to be repaired. When shingles began falling off a second time, the council proposed a city levy to see if citizens would pay for the barn's upkeep.

"That was turned down," Edwards said. "We had a barn that was a liability."

The council tried selling the barn, but got no takers. Several firms offered to dismantle the barn and take it to a landfill at a cost of more than $15,000, money that Tangent couldn't spare.

In February, a woman walked into City Hall to say she wanted the barn.

"I came to Oregon State University 30 years ago from Seattle and never left," said Beth Timmons. "I was a veterinarian technician, and a year ago I moved to Tangent as a hobby farmer. I raise sheep. When I got here I heard all about John Bass and his cat."

When she learned the barn was going to be demolished, she said she "couldn't imagine this beautiful barn going to a landfill."

She showed up at a council meeting to announce her plan to buy it.

The council sold the barn to Timmons for $1 and helped get the permits to transport it to her place, the Circle of Life Farms. Her father, Mike Timmons, who lives in Washington, took over the planning needed to move the barn.

"When my daughter moved here the first thing we heard was the Bass barn was going to be torn down," Timmons said. "Bass was a unique character. His barn needed a benefactor. I guess that's what I am down here."

He hired a company experienced in moving homes and structures. He didn't want to say how much it's going to cost him, but said it would be far cheaper to tear down the barn and be done with it.

"The barn has been jacked up and has three dollies under it," he said. "It's going to be hooked up to an eight-wheel truck and towed like a little red wagon."

Beth Timmons said she received permission from two farmers to tow the barn across the fields to her property.

"One of them was a field of mustard seed and we had to wait until it was harvested," she said. "But we had to do it before the rains came because it would have been impossible to move the barn. They harvested the field last week and we're ready."

Timmons said she doesn't need the barn.

"I have three already," she said. "But this barn is a piece of this town's history. If it had been torn down, there would be a hole in the ground. I'm going to open it up as a community meeting place and museum where people can enjoy it."

Timmons calls herself a "cat person" with multiple cats and feels linked to the spirit of Tangent's character who so loved Kitty Kat.